By: L. K.
Only a little more than a month separates us from the first of October, when the fourth Slovenian March for the Life of Unborn Children will take place in Ljubljana. We talked to a host Urša Cankar Soares about the reasons for attending and supporting every life, even the unborn.
Urša Cankar Soares (1984) is the wife of Nun and the mother of three children aged one to five. She is a Montessori teacher by profession. Three years ago, she left the profession that she really loved and purposely stayed at home with her children so that she could closely observe their development and spend more time with them now that they are in their most tender years. This is extremely valuable to her. During this time at home, she grew a desire to protect more actively the most vulnerable in our society, children before birth.
DEMOKRACIJA: You are best known as the Slovenian leader of the March for Life…
Cankar Soares: The March for Life, which will take place on October 1st this year, will be the fourth in Slovenia. We will organise it until every human life is protected, until abortion becomes as unthinkable as it is unthinkable to destroy your unborn child. There is really no difference, except that during pregnancy we cannot see the child because it is hidden in the mother’s body, in the uterus, where it grows. It is the same person before and after birth! The last march remains a very fond memory for us. People were impressed by the simplicity of the event. It is really a very simple concept: we come together with our families, friends and let people know that the unborn child is a human being and therefore has the right to live. People are happy that they can do something good just by coming. Perhaps someone is wondering why in such a way, is it not enough to raise awareness one on one? The goal of this event is the number of people. If there are many of us, we show how many people do not agree with abortion. Because it is a mass event, the media, which would otherwise ignore us, are forced to report on us. And this may be the only chance that some people in our country will hear and read something in favour of unborn children and their parents in need at least once a year. We hope that among them there is also someone who is facing an unwanted pregnancy and needs the right information and a word of hope.
DEMOKRACIJA: October 1st is approaching – what kind of programme will you have this year?
Cankar Soares: It is true, the march is already happily approaching, so I will take this opportunity to invite your readers to join us. You are cordially invited to reserve the first Saturday in October and come to Ljubljana in the morning – we will be happy to see you. Each of you is important, each participant counts. The programme will be rich and interesting. It will take place under the motto: Equality begins before birth. In our society, there is a lot of talk about equality. Why are pre-born children exempt from this? – This is what we want to think about this time. This year, we also set ourselves the goal that no one would come to the March for Life alone, but with their friends, with a group in which they feel good. If we come together, everything is easier and more beautiful. So, invite your spouses, confirmand, basketball, or whatever groups you attend. Come together. We want those we will meet on the streets of Ljubljana to see that we are happy together. That we are having fun and that this is not a classic protest, but that this is a march of joy, a march of singing, a meeting place with people who are close to us, with whom we have something in common. And what could be better than sharing the belief that every person, including the unborn, is valuable and deserves to live?
DEMOKRACIJA: How are such marches conducted abroad; in which countries?
Cankar Soares: Just like here, there are Marches for Life all over the world. This is not a Slovenian invention. They take place in more than 50 countries around the world, in all major capitals. In May, my team and I visited Zagreb, where we were wonderfully welcomed. There were fourteen thousand people. I gave a short speech, which was a valuable support for the Croats during the Croatian-Slovenian case, so I have no doubt that this year we will also have international participation here. But you should know that there is no gathering in the world that gathers more people in defence of basic human rights than the March for Life in America, in Washington DC.
DEMOKRACIJA: What motivated you to be so active in this field?
Cankar Soares: When, three years ago, during maternity leave, I came into contact with the testimonies of women after abortion on the Internet, I was so taken by it that in one year I reviewed probably about a hundred similar stories. One by one, mothers and fathers poured out their regrets. I could count on the fingers of one hand those who said they did not regret the abortion. Realising that abortion changes, wounds and cripples a woman so much prompted me to do more research. I watched the abortion procedure for the first time and was horrified. For the first time, I became familiar with numbers around the world and in Slovenia. Between forty and sixty million babies a year are aborted worldwide! This means up to one hundred and twenty million injured parents per year. And when I looked at my beautiful baby at the same time, how perfect she is, that she has everything right, only reduced, it moved me to tears. How many like her end up in such a cruel way! When I was thinking about what I could do, how I could contribute to stopping this murder, I was invited to join the March for Life team, where I recognised my place of action. We still have some space in the team – if anyone wants to help but does not know how, they can join. You are welcome to join us!
DEMOKRACIJA: We have already read several times how you argue that the life of the conceived must not be interrupted, but I ask you to say it again.
Cankar Soares: Abortion has been legalised in Slovenia since 1953. In 70 years, technology has advanced significantly. If we had the ultrasound and imaging we have today, I doubt legalisation would have gone through so easily. Today we see that there is a human being in the womb. At the tenth week, he has hands, feet, fingerprints, eyes, heartbeat, and brain activity. On the ultrasound, we can see that he is behaving like a human. He sleeps, laughs, sucks his finger, yawns, pees, dreams… Then why do so many people not see this? All this time, however, the abortion lobbies worked on a masked expression. They did a great job – so that today abortion sounds like something easy, nothing special, like some care, something we just stop, which is a right. It is all a big lie! Life begins with the union of male and female gametes; this is a scientific fact. From then on, it grows, lives, develops, and needs only the best food, and all the hereditary record already exists. It is a unique human being that has never existed before and never will again. Since he has human parents, then their offspring is also human. Human parents are expected to care for, nurture and love their offspring. To destroy one’s offspring is a grave violation of human rights. It is terribly wrong. However, it seems to me that, in contrast to America, Slovenia is not yet ready for such difficult expressions as the words murder and the like, even if it is the truth. We have a lot of work to do to change the expression that has gotten under our skin. One thing I suggest to begin with is that we no longer use their term “artificial termination of pregnancy”, which I think is most misleading. Artificial or spontaneous, both sound so weightless. Interruption, however, as if you will continue something later. It is a distortion of reality so that couples do not feel the weight of the life-changing event they are deciding on.
DEMOKRACIJA: What are the consequences of abortion for women? Or also on those who shout: my body – my decision?
Cankar Soares: Miscarriage is always trauma. I recommend reading the book Forbidden mourning by Dr Therese Burke, where all this is beautifully described. But let us be compassionate to all those who scream, because it is possible that the anger comes from their own pain.
DEMOKRACIJA: You are probably not excited about who took over family politics after the spring election… What is the biggest concern?
Cankar Soares: Yes, the fact that the most radical left-wing party got the portfolio of families is certainly worrying. And I am very, very worried about changing the Family Code. I am worried that they are not listening to the majority of people who have clearly said in three referendums that we do not want this, but they are listening to the so-called civil society, which is funded by the largest infamous organisation in the world, which performs the most abortions in the world, which is the Planned Parenthood Federation. This organisation is funded by Soros, Bill Gates, and other tycoons. The fact that these global supporters of the death of unborn children are spreading their claws around Slovenia when they finance the March 8th Institute worries me a lot. And the results are obvious: these few individuals have the money, the time, all the cameras and microphones. Every thought and intention of theirs comes to the public and they destroy our values, effort, and work.
DEMOKRACIJA: How do you view the decision of the Constitutional Court that the regulation, which does not allow same-sex partners to enter into marriage and adopt children, is not in accordance with the constitution?
Cankar Soares: I am sad and disappointed like many others. We have what we voted for in the past. For some time, I have wondered how the left pole is so successful at persuasion. How do they convince young people? How do they get our young people from traditionally Christian families to vote for them? Is it the fault of the education system, which has a hand over children for many years of their lives? Is it the fault of the media that only shows one picture? Is it the fault of the parents who did not do their homework and pass on their knowledge of communism and how it disguises itself today? Internet? I do not have an answer. Probably a little bit of each. What I do know is that today’s generation must not repeat the same mistake. Like a falcon, we must watch over our children, so that not a single one is taken before our eyes. So sooner or later we should hope for changes. After all, the calculation is on our side, because according to statistics, we choose larger families than they do. We must have hope, but at the same time do everything we can to make this decision of the Constitutional Court do as little damage as possible. Rallies, a referendum and other initiatives are expected. It is our duty to get active. Our children are entrusted to us only for a short time. Maria Montessori says that children are the hope of humanity. We are the guardians of this hope.
DEMOKRACIJA: LGBTQ content in schools is promising. How do you look at it?
Cankar Soares: The fact is that our children will listen to or trust those with whom they spend the most time. This is because we get emotionally attached to the people with whom we quantitatively spend the most time and from whom we learn. Children want to be accepted, loved, and they do not want to stand out negatively. If school, social media and friends teach them one thing, and we at home only repair the damage, we have little hope of success. Eighty percent of the day, or the best quality time for learning, our greatest treasures spend with other people we do not even know. Many of them are brainwashed by LGBTQ+ and abortion ideology. Eighty percent of the day is absolutely too much time. If parents want to have the primary influence in the child’s life, then we need to spend much more time with them and process with them the content that we want them to understand and internalise. More quality time to build a bond of trust with them, so that they will admire us and want to be with us and learn from us. In the safe haven of home, we must outrun the system that seeks to confuse and indoctrinate them. To expose these young brains, which are still developing, which do not yet have a developed part with which they can reason logically, to content that children take for truth in the same way as that the earth is round, seems to me nothing less than child abuse. Ugly. And that really gets my pressure up.
DEMOKRACIJA: Finally: what is your view on euthanasia? A law is being prepared that will enable this as well.
Cankar Soares: If we do not respect human life at its beginning, why should we at its end? If we do not respect unborn children in the last trimester, if practically before the end of pregnancy someone can get an injection of poison in the heart because they are not healthy enough, what prevents us from euthanising children as the next step? Lately we see a lot of news about how new-borns end up in garbage and the like, which is a complete disrespect for life in our society. It all starts with respecting life from conception onwards. If it is not there, everything else falls like dominoes. That is why it is crucial that we educate our children about child development before birth and respecting every stage of human life!